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I am Jeffrey Epstein. For twelve years I have been the subject of greater and 
lesser media attention. In that time, I have never before spoken publicly. This 
was in part because I did not recognize the person portrayed in the media: I 
know who I was, the media did not. I believed that I could at least reclaim my 
privacy, if not my good name, by being private. That, obviously, is not the case. 
So, now, reluctantly, let me try to overcome the media's version of me and tell 
you a little about myself and my circumstance. 
I am a successful investor and have devoted a significant amount of the money 
I've made to scientific and medical research. I am also an unmarried man and 
have openly devoted a significant part of my life to sexual adventure. I am a 
pleasure seeker, a hedonist. I chose not to lead a convention, monogamous, 
domestic life. I have also frequently paid for sex. 
In 2006, the police in Palm Beach, Florida, where I have lived, began a 
systematic surveillance of my house. For over six months they observed, on 
sometimes a daily basis, many different women entering and leaving. These 
women, most of whom worked in local massage parlors and strip clubs, came 
to my house to give massages, often with a happy ending, sometimes more. 
They were paid approximately $TK. Most of these women, more than 100 in 
all, returned on one or more occasions. Many introduced their friends to me. 
[No, this is not conventional behavior. Yes, this is a demi-monde that exists on 
the fringe of respectable society where men who have money and women who 
need money meet] Paying for sex, as often as it was available, became on my 
part a compulsive behavior. 
The Palm Beach police interviewed some TK of the women who came to my 
house, most were unwilling witnesses pressured by the police, each described 
that they had accepted payment for sexual services. I have no defense here. I 
paid for sex and broke the law. 
The Palm Beach police further identified TK of these women who were under 
the legal age of consent, one was 14, the others 17. I had no knowledge of 
anyone's actual age and each of the woman represented that they were 18 or 
older. I certainly do not have a sexual interest in pre-pubescent girls. There is 
no instance or accusations of such behavior. Other than in the smallest 
number of cases, the women who came to my home were [18-to-28] years old. 
Indeed, if the police, in their six months of surveillance, saw a clearly underage 
girl enter the premises with what the police suspected was the intent to 
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engage in a sexual act, the law would have compelled them to intervene. They 
did not. 
In 20TK, I was charged by the state of Florida with TK counts of solicitation. 
[NAME TK, TITLE AND POSITION TKE], believed that I should be charged with 
a more serious crime than existed under Florida law. He wrote a letter to U.S. 
Department of justice asking it to interfere in the case, even though 
prostitution is, everywhere, a state offense. In order to claim jurisdiction, the 
Department of justice needed to make a case that there was interstate travel 
involved in what I had done. I would have had to arrange to transport a 
woman from one state to another. That had not occurred, and they could not 
make that case. Hence, the only fall back they had was to argue that I had 
spoken on the telephone from one state to a woman in another state. Given 
the weakness of its case, the Department of justice offered a settlement—a 
plea bargain. That agreement is now being challenged as too lenient. But 
whereas, a state prostitution charge would have resulted in a likely 
misdemeanor charge with no jail time, I spent 12 months in a Florida jail. I 
agreed to register as a sex offender. I also agree to a financial settlement with 
[WHO?] and to pay their legal bills. One aspect of the settlement that has been 
widely commented upon and attacked is that it offered immunity to my co-
conspirators. This has been interpreted by the media as, somehow, a way to 
protect unnamed powerful figures who I might have known. This is 
preposterous, to say the least. The co-conspirators referenced here were in 
fact the girls who brought their friends to my house. 
One result of the significant settlements that I have paid, and of the legal fees 
that I committed to covering, is almost nonstop litigation against me. Various 
of the current litigants have accepted in some cases 7-figure payouts and then 
continued further civil suits against me—including suing the government to 
break a deal, under which they have been paid, in order to seek even more 
compensation. 
Two weeks ago, a Federal judge agreed to do just that. In effect, what the 
judge has said is that, if, at any time in the future, parties in a case are 
unhappy with its outcome, they can sue to have a legal settlement undone. 
In the years that this case has been litigated, a massive shift in social 
consciousness has occurred. Quite a short time ago, most state laws treated 
solicitation as a minor offense. Like many of us, I have come to understand 
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that prostitution is more than a victimless crime. But the efforts to now retry 
me in this new climate for a crime that I have already been punished for is 
neither just nor fair. 
I have spent a year in prison paying for my mistakes. I have paid 
compensation to the victims. I have not beat the system. I have been judged by 
it. 
I am 66 years old. In the years since my guilty plea to prostitution charges and 
agreement to register as a sex offender, I have lived a chastened and 
scrupulous life. No further accusations have been against me. I have 
endeavored to life my life privately and quietly and continue to make 
contributions on scientific research and development efforts that I believed 
will have a significant impact on future well-being. 
A man is not one thing. I try to live a life that is right, to make amends for what 
I have done that is wrong, and to hopefully apply my resources and talents to 
have a positive effect on the world. 
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